Sunday, August 19, 2012

"Someday" Books or Literary Dust Bunnies

The other day I was reading a great post on the The BookArtista about "someday" books, those books that are so overwhelming and large and serious that they just sit on your shelf forever. You don't want to get rid of them, because you do want to read them, but there just never seems to be time.

I think this phenomenon must be particularly acute with bloggers, what with the constant inflow of new books and the pressure we put on ourselves to stay current with new releases. Oh yes, I'll read Middlemarch someday, we say, right after I get through all the fall releases. Then it's winter and then- well, you get it.

Some of my literary dust bunnies include

Middlemarch, by George Eliot,

The Golden Notebook, by Doris Lessing,

Paul Scott's Raj Quartet series, made more pressing and/or guilt-inducing because I'm watching the BBC television series, which I first saw on public television when I was a teenager, and

Don Quixote.

I recently weeded an old translation of Quixote I picked up at a yard sale and replaced it with the shiny new translation by Edith Grossman, and I plan to bring it with me when I go on vacation. It's the only book I'm bringing and I don't think I will finish it in two weeks, but I'll make a good try anyway.

What books have been gathering dust on your shelf, and do you have any plans to brush them off and give them a go?

13 comments:

I have quite a few 'someday' books, although I just read one in the form of Great Expectations. I really want to read the Raj quartet but only got a fifth of the way through The Golden Notebook before it became too much for me!

I really liked that post, too. Mine include Wuthering Heights by Charlotte Bronte, Crime & Punishment by Dostoevsky (I did attempt it years ago but got stuck), and all these Shakespeare plays I keep meaning to get to.

I read both Middlemarch and A Suitable Boy this year and they are massive chunksters! I can only say that the liberation that comes with a don't care attitude about reading new books is fantastic - I highly recommend it :-)